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Sugar & Sawdust
A mountain of a contractor decides the exhausted baker fixing her own condemned bakery never has to carry the weight alone again — she just has to let him.
Maisie sinks her last savings into a crumbling inherited bakery in a remote mountain town, only to find it condemned, freezing, and one snow-load away from collapse a month before her grand opening.
Grady, the blue-collar contractor sent to shut the building down, instead plants himself in her life and rebuilds the shop with his own hands, asking nothing in return.
As a late-season blizzard and a stolen deposit threaten to sink her dream, the real conflict is internal: Maisie has survived by refusing help, and Grady’s unconditional devotion terrifies her more than bankruptcy.
Tropes: grumpy/sunshine, size difference, he-falls-first, protector hero, blue-collar/contractor hero, cinnamon-roll-under-gruff-exterior hero, fixer-upper renovation, inherited property, small-town romance, forced proximity / snowed-in, fiercely independent heroine learns to accept help, instant obsession / insta-attraction, found family, touch-her-and-die devotion
Story promises: Guaranteed HEA · multiple POV · past tense (what this means)
Content notes: explicit sexual content; praise kink / dominant-submissive dynamic; financial distress; peril from structural collapse and a severe blizzard; prior financial exploitation (stolen deposit) (full index)
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